The Campus-Based Aid Allocation Formula - Task Force Report

NASFAA’s Campus-Based Aid Allocation Task Force was convened by the NASFAA Board of Directors to examine the formula by which congressional appropriations for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Federal Work-Study (FWS), and Perkins Loan programs are distributed to schools, and, in consultation with appropriate groups, develop proposals for changes to the allocation formula. This work is intended to inform the ongoing Higher Education Act reauthorization.

The task force comprised a geographically diverse group of 13 NASFAA members from all types of postsecondary institutions, with a particular emphasis on the inclusion of members representing schools with the full range of campus-based aid allocations. The group conducted its work between October 2013 and June 2014, and its recommendations were accepted and approved by the NASFAA Board of Directors in June 2014.

Based on the research and discussions the task force developed, and the NASFAA Board accepted and endorsed, the full set of recommendations are detailed in this report. Highlights of those recommendations include:

Reconstruct the income bands used to determine institutional need for campus-based programs to more accurately report student need

Eliminate the Base Guarantee and include phase-in protection so that no institution has a decrease or increase of more than 10 percent per year

Restructure the FSEOG formula to be based on the amount of Pell funding received by the institution, including a phase-in provision whereby no institution has a decrease or increase of more than 10 percent per year

Increase the percent of self-help assumed in the undergraduate institutional need calculation of the Federal Work-Study and Perkins Loan formulas to 35% self-help, including a phase-in provision whereby no institution has a decrease or increase of more than 10 percent per year.